Island Expedition Rewards Update
Patch 8.1 will change Island Expedition rewards from being based on the NPCs you kill to the NPCs that are on the island.

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker)

In Tides of Vengeance, in addition to two new Island Expeditions, we’re making a number of adjustments and improvements to Islands. One of those changes will alter how various cosmetic rewards are determined, and we’d like to explain that further, as we promised here: https://twitter.com/WarcraftDevs/sta...80683058487297

Currently in Battle for Azeroth, Island Expeditions have a chance to reward cosmetic items based on which type of creatures you and your team defeated. For example, if the island theme of the week was Hozen, there’s a chance to receive one of the Banana toys. If the invaders were Nerubian, you could have a chance to receive the Voru’kar Leecher companion pet (among other things). They way this has worked is by means of a hidden scorecard that counted your group’s efforts against anything on the island that was part of the invaders’ ecology. So if anyone in the group earned some Azerite from killing invaders or mining Azerite near the invaders, everyone in the group had a chance at the cosmetic rewards. That chance grew based on how much invaders’ Azerite was obtained, and was also a higher chance in Heroic and even higher in Mythic difficulty Islands. We set the maximum chance you could earn at a reasonable threshold, in the hopes that players wouldn’t feel that they needed to only kill invaders and not complete the islands in a natural way.

Of course, that’s not how it worked out. Confusion around the best way to get cosmetics led to a divergence in playstyles, with some players wishing to focus exclusively on hunting specific creatures, while others wished to win the island efficiently to get Azerite. This caused a significant amount of tension between players who had differing goals.

In Tides of Vengeance, all players on an Expedition will have a chance to receive cosmetic rewards based on the island’s inhabitants, rather than which enemies were specifically defeated. That chance will again be higher on higher difficulties, but there will be no need to strategize around invaders. The most efficient way to receive cosmetic rewards will be whatever tactics cause you to complete the Island quickly, on the highest difficulty that you’re comfortable.

Thanks to everyone who has stormed our high seas with feedback on this. We really appreciate it.

New Pet Battle Dungeon - Gnomeregan

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

It’s time to martial your menagerie and put your best battle pets forward within the halls of Gnomeregan.

To get started on your journey, you’ll need to have earned the achievement All Growns Up!, which requires you to raise a pet to level 25. This will make a new quest available to you from Radek Fuselock, who is located near the pet battle trainers in Dazar’alor, or Tizzy Gearjolt, who is located just outside of Dana Pull’s shop in Hook Point in Boralus. You won’t need to complete the Wailing Caverns or Deadmines pet battle dungeons to gain access, and with the release of the Tides of Vengeance content update, you’ll be able to play the three pet battle dungeons in any order.

Completing the quest and pet battle dungeon the first time earns you an Ultimate Battle-Training Stone. You’ll also be able to avail yourself of Manapoof’s aid to teleport directly to Gnomeregan’s dungeon entrance as a part of the quest reward.

For those daring to push your team, you can take on the Challenge Mode version of the dungeon, which requires you to have at least 15 maximum-level battle pets. This will open an account-wide weekly quest that you can pick up from Micro Zoox, who’s waiting outside the Gnomeregan instance portal.

Whether you’re new to pet battle dungeons or a companion-combat veteran, you’ll want to get in on the ongoing story as it unfolds. Who are the shadowy figures that keep appearing? What do they want? What are their nefarious plans? Discover what awaits your critter pals next in Gnomeregan!